Promising the Future
by orangepencils
Summary: Matthew Williams always thought weddings were simple and easy, and yet now that he's getting ready for his own, he realizes that there's much more to saying "I do" and eating cake. AU


**Promising the Future**

**307**

**After much procrastination, I finally got around to doing the PAP 2.0 version. In this one, Matthew is to marry Gilbert and Francis is Matthew's friend. **

**With that said, here it is!**

**Characters: Francis, Matthew, Arthur, Alfred, Gilbert**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: This took forever and a life to get done, but I'm pleased with it. (I agree with the old disclaimer.) Thanks to those who asked me to do this!**

**Note: For those who read Preparing a Promise, this may look familiar. **

Promising the Future

Matthew Williams considered himself to be one hell of a lucky man. He had a loving mother and father; he had a protective older brother and a goofball of a younger twin brother who was too kind for his own good most of the times and the greatest asset to his luck was his wonderful fiancé whom he had chanced upon by accident one rainy April day some four years ago.

He had been driving back home from work and it had been pouring rain all day. On his way, he had happened to notice a lonely looking man with short silver hair walking miserably outside with nothing but a meagre suitcase in hand and the most dejected expression Matthew had ever seen in his thirty years of life.

His heart had leapt for this man who had seemed to be in dire need of a friend at the moment so he had done what any good person would have done; he had pulled over and rolled down the window of his car.

"Excuse me; can I give you a ride somewhere?" He had asked and in the back of his head, he had heard Arthur, his older brother, reprimand him for offering rides to perfect strangers, but he was just like that. Matthew liked helping the needy and right now, this man had screamed for help. On the inside, of course.

Matthew had never seen blood red eyes filled with such misery before then, but he had never seen a prettier face before either. The man had given him an apologetic smile and had taken a step closer to the vehicle.

"Ah… no, it's okay, I was just on my way home… yeah." Matthew had quirked an eyebrow at that not believing a word of the tale.

"Sure you are. Don't worry, I'm not some serial killer and I'm not in a hurry; I don't mind." The other man, who seemed to have some accent to his speech, looked at him a moment longer.

"Actually… I don't have anywhere to go, or a place to stay." Matthew had smiled at him and opened his passenger door.

"Come on, you can stay at my place for a bit. At least to dry and warm yourself up. I'm Matthew by the way and you?" The other man had seemed surprised that a perfect stranger would simply invite him to his home, like that, but the prospect of warmth and a dry place had won him over. Oh and there had also been those pretty violet eyes and that soft smile, but at that moment, neither had really known that this meeting would be the start of a relationship.

"The name's Gilbert and you're either completely wacked for doing this, or the nicest guy on the planet." Matthew had laughed at that and Gilbert had chuckled as well.

They had talked a bit on the way to Matthew's apartment, mostly asking each other questions and exchanging little trivial facts. Matthew had been the perfect host and hadn't asked right away why it was that Gilbert had flown away from home and he had let him all the time he could possibly need to tell him the story.

Gilbert ended up spending one week with Matthew and had offered to do something, anything to pay him back for the favour. Matthew had thought about it for a while and had left Gilbert with house chores.

After that, the older of the two, Gilbert, had found himself a hotel to stay at even though Matthew had told him that he could stay in the guestroom while he looked for his own place. Gilbert had argued that he had done enough for him and in the end; Matthew had let him leave on the condition that he would call him if he needed anything.

He had never expected to get a call some three days later from the German man asking him out on a date.

There had been many outings and meetings with Matthew's family (Arthur had not gotten along with Gilbert, at all) and eventually, somewhere between the first kiss and the first time they had slept together, Gilbert had finally told him why he had looked so miserable on that day when they had met.

He had been engaged to a lovely lady who had been his childhood friend for as long as he could remember. They had been an on again off again couple and she had seen him through his better and worse moments in life. He had had more flings with other people while he had been with her than when he had not, but she had always found it in her heart to forgive him until the day he had cleaned up his act, straightened out and proposed to her.

All had been well until he had found her in the arms of another man that he had had an affair with a few years back. Gilbert had packed his things quickly, taken a taxi to the airport and taken the first ticket he could buy.

During the three years that they had known each other, Gilbert had sworn to Matthew that he had changed for the better and the younger man had never caught him with someone else and had believed that his partner was being sincere.

At least, Gilbert had been sincere enough to propose to him one windy February morning. Matthew had never really given much thought to marriage and he had never really believed that Gilbert would want to go through it again. But apparently, his lover- no fiancé did and apparently, he was stoked on the prospect of getting married to the German.

The year leading to their summer wedding proved to be filled with many challenges and interesting discoveries. Whenever Matthew had attended a wedding in his life, everything had always looked simple and the bride and groom had always looked radiant with joy.

However, here he was downtown with Gilbert, who was jabbering away in rapid English and German on his cell phone about chrysanthemums, sounding more and more upset by the second while he was feeling despair creep up his spine.

For some reason, it seemed as though there was always something coming up that counter affected all of their progress. By the time Gilbert snapped his phone shut, Matthew could tell that something else had gone wrong and this time, it involved flowers.

"I can't believe it! I don't know how a simple order of flowers could get lost!"

"It's not the end of the world, Gilbert. At least we have the narcissuses and the calla lilies right? We don't need the chrysanthemums." Matthew told him in the hopes of calming him down.

"No, it's not the point. You wanted the chrysanthemums and we will find them! It's your wedding as well and if you want them, then so help me God, I will get them for you." The younger man didn't know what to say so he simply smiled. They walked about town for a few more minutes before finding another flower shop that assured them both that they would have the flowers on time. Matthew hoped for Gilbert's sake that they would.

* * *

Two months or so before the big day, there were still many things left to be planned. The church had been taken care of, they had found the hall, the flowers were ordered, the music aspect had been found, the bridal parties informed, the guests had been notified; they were only missing the suits, decorations and the blasted cake.

If anyone would have ever told him that finding a cake would be his greatest headache ever, Matthew would have laughed in their faces. He wasn't a very picky cake eater and Gilbert had once pursued the culinary arts. Who would have thought that would have meant Gilbert would have been the greatest problem in the cake finding?

At first, Gilbert had wanted to bake the cake himself for their wedding, but Matthew had convinced him that with everything else that they would have to prepare, he would be too busy to create the masterpiece that he wanted to make. It had taken a lot of convincing, but eventually, the German had agreed on the condition that the baker would use one of his very own designs.

Apparently, Gilbert had found the time to think up of something.

Matthew had no problem with that, but finding a chef who would be "worthy enough and awesome enough" to bake the cake was the greatest challenge he had ever met since no one was good enough for Gilbert.

By now**,** they had sampled so many different cakes that Matthew was convinced that at this rate, only another baker from Gilbert's native Germany would be able to step up to the challenge. Unfortunately, they were living in Canada, Montreal. He was doomed.

"Remind me again, what was wrong with that cake?" Matthew asked his beau as they left their fifth cake shop of the day.

"The sponge was too hard. The cream was not the right consistency and you could taste the salt in the cake. Are there any other bakers in town or am I going to have to make this cake myself?" Matthew was starting to think that Gilbert was doing this on purpose to make this as difficult as possible so that he would let his fiancé make the cake.

"No, there's one or two more places left. Gilbert, please try to be cordial this time." Gilbert laughed deeply at that and put his arm around the shorter man's shoulders.

"Always, liebling." The Canadian said nothing and the two of them made their way to the next cake shop.

The place seemed to be desolate at first and Gilbert was ready to start complaining about it. There wasn't a soul inside. Matthew could feel the other man smirking behind him, but he wasn't paying attention to his fiancé.

They walked deeper into the bakery and while Gilbert looked at the display of sweets, Matthew was looking for the baker. He was just about to give up and let Gilbert do as he pleased when he heard a man giving out orders in rapid French and two seconds later, a tall man with medium-long blonde wavy hair, cobalt eyes, smile ever so present and wearing an apron that had the Eifel tower on it came walking up to them. Matthew let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding.

"Mathieu! Je commençais à me demander quand tu allais venir me voir pour ordonner ton gâteau de mariage."/ _"Matthew! I was starting to wonder when you would come and see me to order your wedding cake."_ Gilbert watched as the stranger walked over to Matthew, his Matthew, and gave him a big hug. He wasn't of the jealous type, but he wasn't exactly sure why the stranger still had his hands around Matthew's waist. Gilbert did what any non-jealous man would do and cleared his throat noisily. If anything, it at least caught their attention.

"Alors c'est lui ton beau prétendant qui te donne tout ce trouble pour votre gâteau?"/ _"So is he your infamous fiancé who's been giving you a hard time for your cake?"_ Gilbert didn't understand what the man was saying, but he somewhat felt offended and Matthew simply laughed at the comment.

"Yes, this is le grand fouet I've been talking about and he's only been giving me a hard time because he wants everything to be perfect." Matthew stepped away from the embrace and extended his arm to Gilbert.

The German smirked to the stranger and walked over to Matthew. He took the offered hand and linked their fingers together. The taller of the three didn't say a word and simply looked at Gilbert for a moment before nodding his head twice.

"Peu importe. Je ne suis peut-être pas Monsieur le Difficile, comme ton amant, mais je sais ce que je fais dans la cuisine. Ce qui veut dire que ta misère vient de prendre fin; je vais faire votre gâteau de noce."/ _"It doesn't matter. I may not be Mr. Difficult, like your lover, but I know what I am doing in the kitchen. That means that your troubles are over; I will make your wedding cake."_ Gilbert looked at Matthew who looked at the baker who in turn looked at them both.

"What was all of that?" Gilbert finally said. The two other men burst out laughing and Matthew finally made the introductions.

Francisand Matthew had met while in high school some years ago and had struck a deep friendship. While Matthew had then gone on to study to become an architect, Francis had been fascinated by the world of breads and cakes.

While one had gone off to make plans for houses and buildings, the other had opened up a bakery with his partner and through it all, they had remained close friends.

Gilbert's dormant jealousy was put slightly at ease after the explanation and Francis went to get the samples that he had prepared. The food was displayed in front of them and the soon to be groom took the first bite. Matthew held his breath while Gilbert chewed. When nothing was said, Matthew started breathing easier, but it wasn't over yet.

Both he and Francis observed as Gilbert made his way from tray to tray, stopping here and there as he sampled the miniatures. The German was ever so silent, but that was a good sign. If something was wrong, Gilbert would have said something by now.

"Et puis?"/ _"Well?"_ Francis finally asked after a few minutes had passed.

"Hmm… not bad. I can obviously make better, but I think you'll be able to do something more or less awesome." Matthew exhaled sharply as relief washed over him.

"Of course I will be able to! I am French, after all! Mathieu, you should 'ave come to see me first. You would 'ave saved yourself a lot of trouble." The other man laughed loudly at his own comment.

"I know, I just, there's a lot on my mind right now." In truth, Matthew had sort of been too busy freaking out over all the things that needed to be done to think logically that his best friend was a baker. At least, this was another problem that was taken care of.

"Well, I'm going to come back tomorrow and the two of us will talk cake, is that a deal, Mr. Cake-Man?"

"It iz, if you drop de formalities." Gilbert took out his hand and Francis grasped it. Matthew had a funny feeling the two would become close friends.

With that taken care of, they could move along with their plans. Time was ticking by and there were about five weeks left before the wedding. Everything was taken care of except for two remaining things; the decorations for the reception and the suits. The DJ had been found a long time ago (perhaps the only time his brother had ever come handy to him) and for that Matthew was forever thankful.

For what was of decoration, they were having a bit of difficulty over the simplicity of it. Gilbert wanted something stylish and awesome that would make Matthew happy; while the younger man was fine as long as there were tablecloths and utensils. Gilbert had gotten upset over that one day and had told Matthew that he should affirm himself more often. Then the Canadian had agreed with everything Gilbert had suggested and that had only made things worse.

Over the four years that they had known each other, they had never truly argued and the decorations had been one of their first.

At the start of their getting to know one another, Matthew had offered Gilbert room and board as long as he helped with chores, cooked twice or thrice a week and paid for half the groceries and Gilbert had declined time and time again under the pretext that the younger man was doing too much for him. They had "discussed" the fact repeatedly until they had come to an agreement.

After a month in Canada, Gilbert had found a job in a law firm and by then, they had started going out already. Matthew had asked him again if he wanted the extra spare guestroom. At that time, Gilbert had been fed up of living in hotels and motels, since he had never been able to find a suitable apartment, so he had said yes. From there they had gone from being two people going out together sharing one roof and two rooms to lovers sharing the same roof and one room.

"So how about we put the centerpieces with the narcissuses and the calla lilies in the middle of the tables and the others on the side of the entertainment centre?" Matthew asked. Gilbert closed his eyes and tried to visualize the setting.

"It could work. So, we know what we're doing with the flowers. What of the tables? The room?" Matthew was an easygoing person unlike Gilbert who could be a detail freak sometimes. At moments like these, it showed.

"I don't know, Gilbert! I told you it didn't bother me. You're the expert in this. I trust you. Anything will do at this point!" Gilbert looked at his lover/fiancé. He could see that Matthew was stressed and that if he didn't let him be, this would just turn worse.

Gilbert pulled Matthew close to him and wrapped his arms around the younger man's waist. He then placed his hand on Matthew's face and tilted his head upwards ever so slightly so that their lips could meet for a short kiss. When they pulled away, Gilbert kept his hands on either side of Matthew's face and smiled gently at him.

"It's alright, love, take a deep breath and I'll take care of the rest. I'm sorry." Matthew gave him a soft smile as Gilbert kissed him once more. This time Matthew responded with kind and the German man knew that he had done the right thing.

In the end, with the help of the manager of the place, they were finally able to finish off with the decorations and that only left them with one last thing to cross off their list before getting married; the infamous tuxedos.

Matthew had made appointments for the two of them and anyone else who was part of the "bridal party" to go for a fitting at this well renowned place downtown. Of the people who were concerned, there was Arthur and Alfred who had to go for a fitting as well. The others had either already gone or already had a suit. The older brother was already at the store while Matthew's younger brother, Alfred, was giving him a ride since Gilbert had used the car to run some errands earlier in the morning.

"Are you nervous yet?" Alfred asked Matthew as he turned left to get onto the highway.

"By moments. I mean, it's not that I don't want to marry Gilbert; far from it, but it's the mental and physical exhaustion from everything else that gets to you. They make it look so simple on TV, but there's more to saying "yes" and eating too much food in one evening." Alfred looked at his brother for a moment.

"Remind me then, not to get married, ever." The younger twin chuckled to himself.

"That's not it, Al, it's a wonderful thing really. When you think of it, you're promising yourself to spend the rest of your life with this one person you truly love. It's incredibly sweet, but there's a lot of preparation to it. It also depends how lavish of a big white wedding you want." The two said nothing for a while and the only sound in the car was that of the soft music playing in the back.

"Are you happy?" In his thirty years of life, Matthew would have never thought he would have had this conversation with Alfred, no less. Matthew didn't even have to think of his answer and his smile spoke nothing but truth.

"I'm the happiest I've ever been. Gilbert is an incredible man; I'm more than thrilled that he wants to marry me." Alfred nodded and left it at that as he entered the parking lot and found a spot for his car. They walked to the door and when they stepped inside, they found Arthur and Gilbert exchanging thoughts.

"Those two act like an old married couple sometimes." Alfred commented casually.

"And to think I'm marrying one of them." They watched a second longer before sighing at the same time and walking up to them.

"Alright, alright, break it up you two; the best man and the other groom are here. Your lives can go back to normal again." Alfred said. His comment caused the two older men to quit arguing and turn around to greet both he and Matthew.

Once every one had calmed down, they were each ushered to different fitting rooms where suits had already been placed. Gilbert and Matthew had already picked a model, but now it was a question of finding the right size and also of seeing if what they had seen in the catalogue was truly what they both wanted. One thing was for sure, however and that was that the suits would be white no matter what.

As Matthew was busy buckling his belt and making sure that the dress shirt was properly tucked in, he recalled an early conversation with his brother that had taken place in their parents' living room a year or so ago when he had told them of his engagement with Gilbert.

Alfred being Alfred had seized on the chance and had asked whom between the two of them would be the one wearing the dress. Matthew had restrained himself from hitting him and had explained to his brother that neither he nor Gilbert would and that they were gay; not transgendered. Therefore, they would both wear tuxedos. Alfred hadn't mentioned the dress ever since.

Matthew was too occupied in his own thoughts that he didn't hear the soft parting of the curtains that served as a door being pulled open. He was only aware of someone being in the room with him when he felt two arms wrap around his waist and a chin resting on his shoulder followed by Gilbert's voice whispering words close to his ear.

"Mmh, Birdie, you look hot dressed like this." Matthew shivered as Gilbert nibbled on his earlobe for a second or two before he started kissing the crook of his neck.

"Gil-Gilbert, what are you doing here? Aren't you - aren't you supposed to be in your own dressing room?" Matthew wanted to tell Gilbert to stop, that they were in public, that Arthur was really close by, but when Gilbert's hands had started doing those things and when his fiancé had managed to un-tuck his shirt; half of his mind was already urging the other half to let Gilbert do as he pleased.

"Yes, but I told myself that you would look dashing in your suit so I wanted to see before the others; I was wrong. You look magnificent." Matthew had enough of listening to Gilbert ramble on and instead, he turned around and kissed him deeply. The action was a bit of a surprise for Gilbert, but he was never one to turn down an advance from Matthew so he simply pulled the blonde closer to him and moulded their lips together once more.

At some point or other, the older of the two decided that simply kissing wasn't enough so he put his hands to good use. They quickly found the Canadian's belt buckle and successfully managed to undo it. Matthew, for response, hitched his leg around Gilbert's thighs and drew their bodies even closer, getting more of that friction going which felt absolutely blissful. But when the shorter man heard his pants fall to the ground and when Gilbert's hand started stroking him through his underwear and when he heard Arthur say something to his brother outside of the cabin, he quickly pushed his fiancé away.

"Gilbert stop! This, we ca - ah yes, just there - no, I mean, Gilbert, weren't you the one who, who said that we should re – remain - should abstain ourselves from being in - intimate together?" (So what if he had said that while they had been completely drunk?) With Gilbert touching him, feeling him and using his mouth to do other things than talk, Matthew could only arch his back upwards and try his best not to let out those moans that would let the entire building know what they were doing.

"But I don't give a damn at this moment. Especially when you're so Goddamn beautiful and it's been such a long time." Gilbert stopped momentarily to tell him that before returning to his ministrations. Matthew wanted to argue some more, but then Gilbert grazed him with his teeth on his sensitive flesh and the shorter man didn't care anymore. He could be quiet, no, he would be quiet and he could have more of this blessed sensation coursing through him. Oh yes, that was a lovely plan.

"M. Williams, est-ce que tout va bien?"/ _"Mr. Williams, is everything alright?"_ Matthew's head snapped up as he remembered yet again that he was in a fitting room, that Gilbert was doing things to him that were reserved for night time only and for the private eyes and that he was now only wearing the dress shirt. Nothing else.

"Ou-ouiii."/_ "Ye-yesss."_ He hadn't meant to let out that moan, but Gilbert had him exactly where he wanted to and in those instances, if Matthew was to remain silent, it was best if he kept his mouth shut.

"Êtes-vous sûr?"/ _"Are you sure?" _The man asked again.

"Oui, ça v-ça va."/ _"Yes, I'm o-okay."_ He was going to make Gilbert pay later on.

"Voulez-vous que je rentre?"/ _"Would you like me to come in?"_ The short answer to that would have been no, but Gilbert being the clever man that he was shifted just so and made sure that a certain spot inside of Matthew was brushed and it took all of the Canadian's will not to do more.

"Yesss! I mean, no, non, c'est correct, j'arrive."/ _"…no, it's okay, I'm on my way."_

"D'accord…"/ _"Alright…"_ The man let them be and once Matthew was sure that he was away, he glared at Gilbert who only smirked up at him. However, this had gone too far and Matthew was slightly embarrassed by all of this indecent exposure. He strung the last of his willpower together and used all of his inner strength to push Gilbert away, who fell to the floor with a soft "oomph".

With as much dignity as he could muster, Matthew dressed quickly before going out of the cabin and letting know which of the suits he had picked leaving Gilbert inside. Arthur and Alfred were disappointed that they didn't get to see him in the tuxedo, but Matthew was quick with his words and told them that he wanted to keep everything a surprise.

Once the suit was out of his hands, he returned to his cabin to find that, luckily, Gilbert had dressed himself and had made himself look presentable. The older man gave him a wolfish grin which made him sigh.

"You're lucky I love you. Don't think I'm letting you off the hook. You're finishing what you started when we get home." Matthew smirked at him and Gilbert could only laugh.

"With pleasure." He added with another meaningful kiss. Now that everything was taken care of, they could both enjoy these next few days before the rest of their life took off.

**OWARI**

**This. This is a rewrite of "Preparing a Promise", the FrancexCanada story that I wrote for the Hetalia Sunshine Exchange of 2010. Since I had P. beta and she does not ship Franada at all, I "rewrote" it and made a 2.0 version Prada style. [And at the same time, holy shit, the typos and errors that we both had not seen!]**

**Reviews, no matter how short, even if they are anonymous, mean a lot to me and let me know that my writing brings emotions to you readers out there. I see you, the ones who only favourite, the ones who add me to alert, don't think I don't. Even if it's just an exclamation point, it warms my heart.**

**Started writing: July 17****th**** 2010, 1:43pm**

**Finished writing: August 8****th**** 2010, 12:01am**

**Started typing: August 8****th**** 2010, 12:07am**

**Finished typing: August 8****th**** 2010, 7:29pm**

**Finished reworking: October 12****th**** 2010, 7:47pm**


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